UN calls for ‘billionaires tax’ to help world’s poor

The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries.

An annual lump sum payment by the super-rich is one of a host of measures such as a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, currency exchanges or monetary transactions proposed in a UN report that accuses wealthy nations of breaking promises to step up aid for the much less fortunate.

The annual Globe Economic and Social Survey says it is crucial to find new methods to assist the world’s poor as pledged money fails to flow.

The report estimates that the quantity of individuals around the globe worth at least $1 billion rose to 1,226 in 2012.

There are an estimated 425 billionaires in the United States, 315 in the Asia-Pacific region, 310 in Europe, 90 in other North and South American countries and 86 in Africa and the Middle East.

With each other they personal an estimated $4.6 trillion so a one percent tax on their wealth would raise far more than $46 billion, according to the report.

“Would this hurt them?” it questioned.

“The ‘average’ billionaire would own $3.7 billion after paying the tax. If that billionaire spent $1,000 per day, it would take him or her over 10,000 years to devote all his or her wealth,” the report says